Cleansing coal or other minerals



(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 1.

0. LUHRIG 8; J. 0'. GUNINGHAME. PROGE-SS 0F SEPARATING AND CLEANSING GOAL OR OTHER MINERALS.

No. 427,433. Patented May 6, 1890.

Witnesses "m: NORRIS PETERS ca, PHoro-umm, msnwmon, a c.

, 5 Sheets-Shet 2. O. LITHRIG & JJG. GUNING'HAME. PRUUESS 0F SEPARATING AND CLEANSING GOAL OR OTHER MINERALS.

(No Model.)

. 3 Patented May 6, 1890.

Witnesses In fenifiors 5 Sheets-Sheet 3.

G.-LUHRIG 85 J. O. OUNINGHAME. PROCESS 01-" SBPARATING AND GLEANSING GOAL OR OTHER MINERALS.

No. 427.433; Patented May 6, 1890.

(No Model.)

Witnesses Inven%o*r.s

(No'ModeL) 5 Shets-Sheet 4. O. LUHBIG 8v J. G. (JUNINGHAME. PROCESS OF SEPARATING AND GLBANMNG COAL OR OTHER MINERALS.

No. 427,433. Patented May 6, 1890.

(No Model.) 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 G. LUHRIG & J. 0. (JUlVIlIGrPIAlVIE. PROCESS OF SEPARATING AND CLEANSING GOAL OR OTHER MINERALS.

No. 427,433. Patented May 6, 1890.

[Emma] uh nZZnes'aes: 172276723071 UNITED STATES PATENT @EETGE.

CARL LllHRIG, OF DRESDEN, SAXONY, GERMANY, AND JOHN CHARLES CUNINGHAME, OF GLASGOV, SCOTLAND.

PROCESS OF SEPARATING AND CLEANSING COAL AND OTHER MINERALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 427,433, dated May 6, 1890. Application filed September 26, 1889. Serial No. 325,155. (No model.)

To all whom it 77mg concern:

Be it known that we, CARL LiiHRIc and JOHN CHARLES CUNINGHAME, subjects, respectively, of the Emperor of Germany and the Queen of Great Britain, residing, respectively, at Dresden, Saxony, German Empire, and 127 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, have invented a new and useful Process of Separating and Cleansing Coal and other Minerals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to novel means and apparatus by which a succession of opcrations can be automatically carried on for the purpose of screening and washing coal and ridding it of shale, slates, and other incombustible substances, and to automatically obtain coal of different sizes, as fine coal, coarse coal or nuts,a middle product or an intermediate kind of coal, pyrites, with which some classes of coal are often permeated, and the sludge or schlamm produced by washing. In connection with the appliances is a collector for sediment and flocculent matter contained in or taken up by the water, so that the water is collected in a clear state and returned to a reservoir for reuse.

The invention will be understood by reference to the annexed drawings.

Figure 1 is an end elevation, partly in section, of a structure in which the several features of the invention are indicated. Fig. 2 is a side elevation; Fig. 3, a plan. Fig. 4 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, showing certain details of construction hereinafter described. Fig. 5 is a plan showing, upon an enlarged scale, certain details of the apparatus.

The coal or mineral in trucks, trolleys, or corves, preferably on a line of metals A, is shot therefrom to and upon suspended gratings or vibrating bars or shaking screens B and B, through which the pieces to be operated 011 are passed, the larger pieces passing off from the ends into trucks and being used as lump coal. The screened materialthen falls into a pit C, from which, by means of the endless chain of buckets or elevator D, it is carried to the upper part of the building, where it falls into a chute E, and from there into the revolving screen or drum F. This screen is composed of, say, fir e concentric drums II I J K L, one within the other and with meshes of different degrees of fineness, the innermost drum having the largest meshes, so that the larger particles will pass from the central drum H into a chute M, the next size from the drum I into the chute N, that from J into the chute P, from K into the chute Q, and that which is of a very fine character from L into the chutes R R R.

The drum just referred to is of tapered form and is carried by one shaft S, to which rotary motion can be communicated in any known manner. The concentric drums or screens are held at their respective distances apart by radial bolts connected to the shaft, tubular distancing pieces and nuts holding them in position. The concentric screens of this drum are of different lengths. Consequently the spouts arranged under their outlets can respectively receive the coarse and fine screened material. From the chutes or spouts M N P Q the coarser grades of coal fall into jiggers or washers T U V \V, respectively. The fine particles from the spouts R R R fall, respectively, into the three jiggcrs or washers X Y Z. All thesevjiggers or washers have a partition a, and the coal falls upon perforated floors or sicves 1), arranged on. one side of the partition a. The other sides of the jiggers or Washers have plungers or pistons c, as clearly indicated in Figs. 1 and 4t, the plungers or pistons cbeing worked up and down by eccentrics on the shaft (Z, and the water for washing is supplied through a cook or pipe 6. The lower part of the jiggers or washers is of tapered form and receives the sludge washed from the coal, the

water being forced up and down through the perforated floors or sieves b by the up-anddown motion of the plunger or piston c. The bottom of each receiver has ahole stopped by a conical plug, which is lifted from time to time by the handle f, so that when the fine sludge or clean dirt has to be removed it passes down their respective outlet-spouts g g g g into a spout 72,, common to all of them for discharging the clean dirt into a pit h, "from which it can be removed by the elevator 72, to hopper its, for discharge into trucks. The washed coal passes from perforated floors or sieves I), through the upper of the two openings in the jigger or washer, as shown on the drawings, into the chute 1'. An adjusting slide j, behind which is a fenced plate 7:, reaches almost down to the sieve, so that the heavy material or slate shall pass under the plate on its way to the lower opening to the worm or conveyer Z. The trough of the conveyer or worm is divided by a plate on, Fig. 5, and the worm-part of which is rightthreaded, the other part left-threaded, Fig. 5- takes the shale, slate, and intergrown coal from the Washers or j iggers T U V TV to the elevators n, which deliver the stuff through a spout to the crusher g, by which the intergrown coal is opened up by the crusher. The crushed coal then falls through a spout to jigger or washer Z and is treated in exactly the same manner as that of the other jiggers, but giving an intermediate kind of coal and that from the washers or jiggers X Y Z to elevator p.

The fine heavy dirt from jiggers X Y Z Z, should it contain pyrites, requires a distinct washing to extract the pyrites therefrom, and this is effected in the washer or jigger t, to which it is led through spouts r r r r and s, which jigger is provided with a piston or plunger in a similar manner to the jiggers or washers before mentioned.

The clean-washed coal passes from the chutes d, before mentioned, to suspended shaking drainers u, to which another supply of water is furnished by jetsv v forbrightening the coal, the larger pieces of coal falling into the hopper w and the liner into the 110pper 00, said hoppers being provided with gates which when opened allow of the coal to be shot into different trucks or trolleys. The water from 1' and 1) passes along with fine sludge through the lower drainer into a receptaele g, from which they flow into 2, and through the drum A into sludge or schlamm pit B. The fine washed coal from the jiggers or washers X Y Z also passes into a drum A by the spout C. This drum A is composed of very line mesh, so that the fine sludge passes through it into the sludge-channel 3. The particles of coal, passing out from the drum A, fall into a receptacle, from which they are lifted by an endless chain of buckets 0r elevators D and discharged into a hopper E.

The sludge-pit I is comparatively deep, for the subsidence of the rough solids contained in it. which solids can be removed by the endless chain of perforated draining-buckets or elevator F into a hopper G. This elevator works slowly, so as not to create much agitation on the surface of the water, the level of which is maintained to a given height. In connection with the upper part of this pit I is the long channel B, in which an endless chain of boxes H move. The boxes form attraction-plates for fioeculent matter held in suspension in the water to adhere to them, and as the boxes reverse their position and move along the bottom of the channel they scrape the light particles that have settled on the bottom into the sludge-pit I, the clarified water passing off by a channel into the well J, from which the centrifugal pump K derives its supply, to be used again. The centrifugal pump also furnishes water to the drum F, the washers T U V WV X Y Z Z, and the pipes 2) o.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of out said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is- 1. The hereinbeforedescribed process of treating mined or broken coal containing more or less foreign matter in .mechanieal mixture, consisting in subjecting the mass of such material to a rotary screening action, and thus centrifugally separating the mass into particles of different sizes and discharging them into separate compartments, where the particles are washed and further separated, the lighter from theheavicr, then crushing the larger of these heavier particles, and separating therefrom any remaining lighter material that may have remained intergrown or in natural combination therewith by washin g the crushed mass and recovering said lighter material from 'the water used, as fine coal or sludge matter, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a machine for separating and washing broken coal, the combination of the following-named instrumentalities, all operatrecovered, and smaller coal separated by crushing from said heavier material, Washed, and recovered, leaving as a residuum sludge or sedimentary material, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In a machine for separating and Washing coal, the combination of a sediment-collector, a water-clarifier, and a screen-drum of finely-graduated meshes, whereby the sludge or residual-y sedimentary material is recov ered and sorted into different-sized particles, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In witness whereof we have hereto si ned 

